|
|
|
|
The Article, March 02, 2020 |
by MARK RONAN |
|
Beethoven: Fidelio, Royal Opera House London, ab 1. März 2020 |
|
Lise Davidsen is magnificent in the Royal Opera’s new Fidelio
|
|
This new production of Beethoven’s Fidelio by German director Tobias
Kratzer, is a work of two distinct acts. The first act is set in the reign
of terror following the French revolution, emphasised by a tricolour on one
side of the stage. This setting gives context to the desire of the prison
governor Don Pizarro to engineer the death of his most significant prisoner,
Florestan.
In the second act, we are in an international court with
the chorus as witnesses observing the misery and impending death of
Florestan in prison. Close-up video shows the chorus’s distance from events,
as they eat and drink, while Rocco the prison warden and his assistant
Fidelio (in reality Florestan’s wife Leonora) dig Florestan’s grave. This
and other incidents, like Marzellina’s Act One attempt to become physically
intimate with Fidelio, spoil an otherwise intriguing production of an opera
dealing with universal human rights and the corruption of power. In the end,
the chorus witnessing the intended prison murder goes on the attack, coming
to the front of the stage and bringing the opera to a close.
Kratzer
is a master of original ideas, with a strong comedic streak, as his
Tannhäuser at Bayreuth last summer showed. Highly original and utterly
hilarious in parts, the audience loved it. But this Fidelio production did
not work so well, and some in the audience were sufficiently irritated by
the Act Two antics to boo the production team at the end. Kratzer’s
modifications to the libretto caused no offence, but the bright lighting in
Act Two and the banalities in the staging upset what should be the
universality of the repression and abuse of power that Beethoven was
expressing.
Musically, however, this opening performance in the 250th
anniversary year of Beethoven’s birth was a resounding success under the
baton of music director Antonio Pappano. His conducting brought out a
tension and excitement that can sometimes drag in other hands, and Norwegian
soprano Lise Davidsen (pictured, above left) made a simply outstanding
Fidelio, full-toned, firm and with a Wagnerian ability to soar above the
orchestra. As Rocco the prison warder, Georg Zeppenfeld (pictured, above
right) was another Wagnerian who can carry far heavier roles than this, and
he sang superbly, his calm authority and uprightness suiting the role to
perfection. Amanda Forsythe, as his daughter Marzellina, was a delight, and
in the last moments of the opera Latvian bass Egils Silinš made a fine vocal
presence as the government minister whose arrival prevents the intended
murder.
As Florestan’s nemesis Don Pizarro, British baritone Simon
Neal, who sings mainly in Germany, was excellent, and it is only a pity that
Jonas Kaufmann as Florestan was not at his best. Having missed the dress
rehearsal through illness he was not yet quite back to form, though he will
doubtless be in better shape for the live cinema relay on March 17.
In what was otherwise a wonderful musical performance, the German production
team has misjudged its British audience — as is so often the case.
|
|
|
|
|
|